


It's Empty in the Valley of Your Heart, the Sun It Rises Slowly as You Walk (Away From All the Fears and All the Faults You've Left Behind)

by Huntress8611



Series: Whumptober 2020 [18]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Andy | Andromache of Scythia Needs a Hug, Author's Favorite, Crying, Cuddling & Snuggling, Day 18, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Whump, F/F, Good Quynh | Noriko, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Immortal Wives Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko, Memories, Nightmares, Panic, Panic Attacks, Stargazing, Whump, Whumptober, Whumptober 2020, i love these two so much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27095989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huntress8611/pseuds/Huntress8611
Summary: “No,” Andy whispered, “No, this can’t be-”Her heart sped up, panic taking over. Her chest felt tight and she felt like she couldn’t take in a full breath.“Quynh, no, where’d you go?” she said to herself, stumbling out of bed and into the hallway. “Where are you, where’d yougo?”
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko
Series: Whumptober 2020 [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946887
Comments: 6
Kudos: 37
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	It's Empty in the Valley of Your Heart, the Sun It Rises Slowly as You Walk (Away From All the Fears and All the Faults You've Left Behind)

**Author's Note:**

> The title of this work is from the song The Cave by Mumford & Sons.
> 
> This work fills the prompt for Whumptober Day 18: Panic Attacks.
> 
> TWs: panic attacks, nightmares

_ “Quynh? What- where are you going?” Andy asked, confused. _

_ “Oh, my Andromache…” Quynh whispered. _

_ Andy reached out to take her hand and, to her horror, she passed right through her, like she was nothing more than a hallucination. _

_ “Quynh, no- what happened, why can’t touch you?” _

_ “Don’t you see, Andromache?” she said, taking a step back. _

_ Andy stepped forward, and as she reached out to try and touch Quynh again, she started to fade away. _

_ “I was never really here…” _

_ “No-” she gasped, falling to her knees. “No, no, Quynh! No!” _

She bolted upright, barely managing not to scream. She reached her arm out, trying to find Quynh, and when she looked at the other side of the bed, no one was there.

“No,” Andy whispered, “No, this can’t be-”

Her heart sped up, panic taking over. Her chest felt tight and she felt like she couldn’t take in a full breath.

“Quynh, no, where’d you go?” she said to herself, stumbling out of bed and into the hallway. “Where are you, where’d you  _ go?” _

“Andy?” her eyes snapped up as someone set their hands on her shoulders. “Andy, what happened?”

Joe, she thought. She must have woken him up.

“Andy, Andy, what’s wrong? Talk to me.”

“Quynh-” she managed. “Where-”

“Okay,” he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and leading her down the hallway. “Okay, let’s go find Quynh.”

Everything felt wrong. The world didn’t seem right. She could see, but it was like her brain wouldn’t process the images. She knew that Yusuf was talking, she could hear him, but she couldn’t tell what he was saying. She let him lead her to wherever he was trying to go, hoping that he would be able to help her find Quynh.

She felt the cold night air on her skin, and shivered. He must have taken her outside, but why? She didn’t understand, until she felt another person touch her, gently cradling her face between their hands.

Yusuf let go of her, but this new person didn’t.

“-ok at me, look at me,” she heard someone say, but it was like her head was underwater.

She couldn’t tell who was touching her, but it felt right, it felt safe, and she managed to open her eyes, though she wasn’t entirely sure when she had closed them.

“There you are. Andromache, look at me, c’mon. You’re okay.”

Andy managed to focus on the face in front of her and she nearly collapsed in relief, only stopped by Quynh, who managed to catch her and gently lower her to the ground.

“Quynh,” she managed.  _ “Quynh.” _

“I’m here, I’m right here,” Quynh said softly, wrapping her arms around Andy and pulling her against her.

“You- I thought-” Andy pressed her face into the crook of Quynh’s neck, trying to breathe in the familiar scent, to reassure herself that Quynh was here.

“Breathe, Andromache,” she instructed, bringing a hand up to run her fingers through her hair. “Just breathe. Everything’s okay, I’ve got you.”

She tried to follow Quynh’s instructions, tried to breathe, and she managed to slow her breaths down a little. Not much, but enough. Andy could feel tears forming in her eyes, and let out a sob, wrapping her arms tightly around Quynh’s back.

Quynh started to quietly sing, gently rocking back and forth. It was an old song, one Andy hadn’t heard in over 500 years. Quynh always knew how to help her, Andy thought. She always knew what to do.

Andy finally managed to take a full breath, and then another. It took a little longer for her to slow down her breathing, and even longer for her sobs to stop, but eventually she was quiet.

“What happened, Andromache?” Quynh asked, concerned.

“I had a dream, a nightmare. You- you were there, but then- then you said that it was fake, that you were never here, and you faded away,” Andy said. “I- I woke up and you weren’t there, and I panicked. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize, not for this.”

“What were you doing out here?” Andy asked, curious. “You don’t have to tell me, I was just wondering.”

“Sometimes I like to come out here and look at the sky,” she said. “There aren’t as many as there used to be, but they’re still beautiful.”

Andy turned her head and looked up at the sky. She was right, the stars were beautiful.

“Sometimes I can’t be inside. I feel trapped,” Quynh admitted. “I come out here, where it’s open, and I look at the sky. The stars and the clouds are so pretty, and I love to watch the sunrises and sunsets, they’re my favorite.”

Quynh leaned back and layed down on the grass. Andy moved so that she was next to her, with her head resting on her chest, Quynh’s arm still wrapped around her, and she looked up at the sky. It wasn’t light out yet, and the stars were still visible.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve done this,” Andy said, a small smile on her face. “We used to do it all the time.”

“We did,” Quynh said, pressing a kiss to the top of Andy’s head. “That we did.”

A long time ago, when it was just the two of them, they’d done this on almost every clear night. They kept doing it when Lykon arrived, the three of them huddling together against the cold, watching the sun as it set, and then staring at the stars, pointing out constellations until they fell asleep.

It wasn’t the same after Lykon died, but they kept doing it. They never really stopped, and when they found Nicolo and Yusuf, they told them the stories of the stars and the constellations. Even when the two younger men would stay in inns, Andromache and Quynh would sometimes choose to sleep outside and watch the stars.

“We should start doing this again,” Andy said. “I missed it.”

“You never watched the stars, after…?”

“I couldn’t make myself, it- it hurt too much.”

“We will do this more often,” Quynh said. “And maybe we can convince the others to join us, on occasion.”

“I’d like that,” Andy said happily. “That would be amazing.”

They stayed where they were for a few more hours, occasionally sharing memories, until the sun had risen, and they finally got up to go inside.


End file.
